Saima Wazed Putul. Photo taken from Facebook

Saima Wazed Putul, daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, won the World Health Organization award for her contribution to neurology development, disorder and autism sector, Health Minister Mohammad Nasim announced today.
She has been selected for South-East Asia Region Award for Excellence in Public Health, the health minister told reporters at a press conference at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
Saima will receive the award on September 10 on the second day of the four-day conference of South-East Asia Region of WHO that begins tomorrow in the capital, the minister said.
Saima is working as psychologist in USA and is also an adviser of the WHO expert panel.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director for South-East Asia of WHO, will hand over the honour to Saima at the conference.
Health ministers from 11 countries of South-East Asia Region of WHO will attend at the meeting. WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan will also join the event.
The participants will discuss ways of addressing vector-borne diseases to adopt the Dhaka declaration on the issue.
Globally, a billion people are estimated to be infected from vector-borne diseases, and over a million die from them each year, according to the WHO.  Millions of people in the South-East Asia Region (SEARO) are at risk of dengue, malaria, lymphatic filariasis and kala-azar, it says.
The SEARO member countries are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
Meanwhile, Indian High Commission in Dhaka told the media yesterday that Indian Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is due today to attend the meeting.